Uttarakhand CM Bahuguna forced to quit, state sees 6 CMs in 14 years

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Friday resigned saying he was bowing before the wishes of the Congress leadership. “The party high command has asked me to resign. I am resigning from the post. The Congress MLAs will elect the new chief minister on Saturday. I will continue to work for the party,” Bahuguna said in state capital Dehradun.

The Governor on Friday accepted the resignation of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna. The demand for Bahuguna’s removal from the post of chief minister had been doing the rounds for a long time.

After the devastating floods in June 2013, there was an intense pressure on him to step down. He is accused of not carrying out the flood relief work properly.

Vijay Bahuguna’s appointment as the chief minister after the Congress returned to power in 2012 was a real surprise for party MLAs. At that time he was a sitting MP from Tehri-Garwal. Union minister and a strong leader from the state Harish Rawat had openly revolted against the party high command for imposing Bahuguna. The high command managed to pacify him by making him a Cabinet minister later.

Bahuguna, a former judge of the Bombay High Court, is the son of Congress stalwart HN Bahuguna, who was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Bahuguna’s Brahmin caste had also played role in making him the CM. Some people had alleged that he managed the CM post through some big industrial houses, which have commercial interests in the state.

Bahuguna proved to be a failure from day one. Most of his ministers refused to take orders from him and powerful leaders from the state like Harish Rawat, Harak Singh Rawat, Indira Hridayesh and others kept pressuring him to quit

The state Congress also informed the high command that the party may lose all 5 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, if they don’t change him. In 2009, the Congress won all 5 seats in the state.
The small Himalayan state of Uttarakhand has seen 6 chief ministers after it was carved out of UP in 2000.